"The mockery made him feel an outsider; and feeling an outsider he behaved like one, which increased the prejudice against him and intensified the contempt and hostility aroused by his physical defects. Which in turn increased his sense of being alien and alone. A chronic fear of being slighted made him avoid his equals, made him stand, where his inferiors were concerned, self-consciously on his dignity."

- Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, Ch. 4

"Wheels must turn steadily, but cannot turn untended. There must be men to tend them, men as steady as the wheels upon their axles, sane men, obedient men, stable in contentment."

-Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, Ch. 3

The key to all the greatest insights of religion, psychology, sociology, anthropology, and political science
is the Bible,
or would be, if it was taken seriously - mostly by the very people who claim to honor it.

Humanity remains ignorant and anemic in the face of conflict, violence, crime and war
because it generally ignores the essential biblical insights about all these things,

namely:

-Once we reject the doctrine of the devil - that is, a deceiving, condemning spirit that works in all of us - we project our inherent belief in and need for a devil on to some person or group.

-Once we reject the doctrine of sin - that is, an inherent shared human problem of ignorance, illness, or corruption - we project our inherent belief in and need for knowing the problem on to the basic perceived faults of some type of person.

-Once we reject the doctrine of a Savior - that is, a person or human type that can "deliver us from evil" (however we conceive of evil) - we project our inherent belief in and need for a Savior on to some politician, teacher, film star, pop singer, athlete or potential mate.

-Once we reject the doctrine of biblical salvation - that is, a freeing from our bondage and empowering to do remarkable good (however we conceive of bondage and good) - we project our inherent belief in and need for such freeing and empowering on to money, the next election, beauty, our favorite music, alcohol, science, education, success, physical strength, some significant relationship, or some special expertise.

-Once we reject the doctrine of the Heaven - that is, a place of ultimate mercy, justice, beauty, safety and reward - we project our inherent belief in and need for a heaven on to some imaginary and illusory earthly utopia, political social ideal, or ultimate ideal or dream come true.

-Once we reject the doctrine of an authoritative scripture - that is, a source of profound and helpful ideas that has a proven trustworthiness - we project our inherent belief in and need for an authoritative source on to some other person's ideas or set of writings, songs or films.

and etc. (the examples are probably endless).

The relationships between a person's
1. Naiveté,
2. Willful self-deception,
3. Intellectual laziness,
4. Possible inherent mental feebleness -

These relationships are complex.

Spend Now, Pay Never, Collapse Eventually, Let Someone Else Worry About It

In order to make the cuts in government spending that will keep this country from going down the toilet financially, legislators would have to act in a way that would almost guarantee their rejection by the voters in a future election.

(a) Since the highest priority of politicians is re-election,
(b) Since American citizens will not put up with a decrease in government goodies, and
(c) Since the government can only take money away from taxpayers until there is nothing left to take -

Therefore -

Kiss the America you know goodbye; it's only a matter of time. And all of us will share the blame equally.

(The only real solution to the problem has nothing to do with money or politics.)

In 2008, "the people" spoke, and those who were elected saw it - rightly, from their frame of reference - as a call to govern as they had promised. Yesterday, "the people" spoke again, and again, those who were elected see it - rightly, from their frame of reference - as a call to govern as they promised. No true cultural consensus was expressed in 2008, and no true cultural consensus was expressed yesterday. That's because we are "multi-cultural" in every way. We have a national version of Multiple Personality Disorder. As always, the most significant issue is not political agreement, but civility. Agenda addiction, and self-righteous dishonesty to feed that addiction, is the main enemy, and it is an enemy that unites all decent people.

Voting for Your Favorite Sock Puppet (a false happy face with a fist inside)

The people have the power but we do not want it. We think we do, and we like our little power drips (not a typo) – like making a purchase we can not afford, manipulating lights and sounds on a screen with a joystick, or giving a hostile puerile one finger gesture to a rival – but we don’t want the real power; not the waterfall. That power must be passed over to those who can handle all the contempt we pour on them for exercising it; for disappointing us in their use of the power we handed over to them; the power we handed over to them because we did not want the responsibility that comes with wielding legitimate power instead of yielding it.

When we vote for someone, we hand our power over to someone else. And we also hand over any right to hold them accountable. Power and accountability go together. You have both or you have neither. You can have the burden of fully human functionality, or you can have someone to blame. We can not hand over our power, and then have the right to expect that power to be used in ways that we wish. We gave it up. It is no longer ours. We did not want the responsibility, the accountability of our own power. We wanted to feel right and righteous, to feel good about ourselves.

We want to ignore that shame hole that is hidden there right next to our faces, so we give others the power and then blame them. We prefer someone to blame, so we vote for someone.

And you may be certain that they fully intend to use it. They do not have to use it in a way that pleases us because it’s our power and we handed it over to them. And they will almost certainly not use it in a way that pleases us. Why should they? They have cultivated the mental sickness of burying all shame - their own shame plus the blame we will lay upon them - so why should they care how we want them to use the power we give to them?

We vote for candidates. Rather, we think we do. We do not really vote for candidates. Candidates are the brightly painted facades in front of those who control them. The puppeteers behind the facades present two candidates to us – sometimes more – so we can be made to feel we have power, the power to choose. And we do have the power to choose. We choose one finger on that one conniving hand. The one house has two facades, but there is still just one house, and everyone in it knows the game, embraces the game, manipulates the game, loves the game. The house is dark. The curtains are drawn. Any music that is playing is merely to keep us dancing.

They are welcomed into the house because they offer the most money, the best looking groupies, the purest cocaine, or the most desired treatment in the media. They have the most compromising blackmail pictures. They have cultivated the most loyalty, injected the most fear, enslaved others to the most useful moral weaknesses. They are the best at the rhetoric and the spin. They have the best rhetoric about making the world a good place. "Vote for me to make the world a good place." So say the ones in the dark house. And we believe them. Why? Because it helps us feel good about ourselves as we hand over the power.

Power: from us to the candidates to the puppeteers. But who are these puppeteers? And do they know that, beneath the spin and rhetoric, they are all in the same club? That they are all the same? And does the power transfer stop with them? Is it a conscious conspiracy, or are they merely deceived by an even higher level deceiver by which they are ultimately consumed? Do those with the most money spend that money on behalf of some ultimate source? Do the high level pimps and dealers work for a Number One Pimp and Dealer? Do the accomplished liars owe their position to an even better liar, lurking even deeper in the house? Are the fear mongers themselves terrified? Are the manipulators being manipulated? You may be certain of it.

So who sits back in the furthest, darkest place in the power room – pulling the strings of the puppeteers who pull the strings of the puppets? Who is there when you go back as far as you can go? How many are there? How many steps are there before you get to the ultimate source? It does not matter, because it is clear who that source is. The source is the devil. And who is the devil? The devil is you and I – giving up our power. The ultimate source is you and I – unwilling to wield the power that is legitimately our own, and in any case, unable to wield it in a way that makes the world a good place.